Bush's steel tariff working out well

[Chris Beggy]

Charles Jannuzi <b_rieux at yahoo.com> writes:

> It's just as I said when he made the decision.
> Higher steel prices, profits going to US
> producers, a big fucking over for surging
> Japanese auto producers, and takeover turmoil
> where divisions like Corus's Aluminum get sucked
> up by the cartelists. 

Honda claims that the steel isn't available from US steelmakers,
though, so US steelmakers don't stand to benefit.  Maybe their
claim is true, but it's also a classic way to lock out
non-Japanese producers from their supply chain.  The airlift
scenario is real grandstanding.  I wonder if Hill and Knowlton
came up with that for Honda?

Do you really think Japan is a low cost steel producer, anyway?

> Good to see the 'free trade in rhetoric only
> spirit'  of Kantor, Barchefsky, Rubin, Summers,
> Esserman, Fisher etc. lives on.

It does seem to require more political capital to jam
bad trade deals down on unionized industries which
also have many retirees who vote as well.

Chris